973.7L63   Illinois  Watch  Company 
B3U6b 

The  Book  of  A.  Lincoln 
Watches. 


LINCOLN  ROOM 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 
LIBRARY 


MEMORIAL 

the  Class  of  1901 

founded  by 

HARLAN  HOYT  HORNER 

and 

HENRIETTA  CALHOUN  HORNER 


THE  BOOK 


Jf^LLwco^n/ 


WATCHES 


THE  ILLINOIS  WATCH  CO. 


SPRINGFIELD 


THIS 
NEW  WATCH 

WAS  NAMED  IN  HONOR  OF  THE 
FOREMOST  CITIZEN  OF  OUR 
CITY,  ONE  OF  THE  GREATEST 
AMERICANS  OF  ALL  TIMES, 
WHO  WAS  A  PERSONAL 
FRIEND  AND  CONFIDANT  OF 
THE  PARENTS  OF  MANY  OF 
OUR  EMPLOYEES,  —  WHOSE 
FINAL  RESTING  PLACE  IS  BUT 
A  SHORT  DISTANCE  FROM  OUR 
DOOR  AND  WHOSE  MEMORY 
AMERICA  TODAY  REVERES. 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

1809-1865 


Lincoln's  birthplace,  hodgenville,  Kentucky 

LINCOLN 
IN  SPRINGFIELD 

.LjINCOLN  once  told  an  interviewer  that 
the  story  of  his  early  life  might  be  told  in 
the  single  line  from  Gray's  Elegy, 

"The  short  and  simple  annals  of  the 
poor." 

He  was  born  in  a  log  cabin  in  Kentucky. 
His  boyhood  and  adolescence  knew  only 
the  grinding  hardships  of  poverty  and  the 
insatiate  hunger  for  knowledge. 

"All  of  his  life  he  was  a  solitary  man 
communing  with  himself." 

When  he  came  to  New  Salem,  Illinois, 
he  was  twenty-two.  He  was  one  of  the 
\     3     1 


THE    BOOK    OP^/^^X^ATCHES 

"long  nine"  of  the  Illinois  general  assem- 
bly who  made  an  indelible  impress  upon 
Illinois.  They  secured  the  transfer  of  the 
state  capital  from  Vandalia  to  Springfield. 
Lincoln  followed  this  political  act  by 
moving  to  the  new  capital  to  make  it  his 
home. 

On  a  March  day  in  1837,  astride  a  bor- 
rowed horse,  he  stopped  before  Joshua 
Speed's  store  on  the  west  side  of  the  public 
square  of  that  village  of  mud  streets  and 
twelve  hundred  people.  Two  saddle  bags 
contained  his  possessions.  That  day  he 
had  received  his  license  to  practice  law. 

"Speed,  I  have  come  to  Springfield  to 
live." 

The  furniture  he  selected  for  his  room 
amounted  to  seventeen  dollars.  "If  I  am 
successful  in  the  practice  of  the  law,  I  hope 
I  can  pay  you  by  Christmas,"  said  he,  to 
which  Speed  replied:  "you  don't  have  to 
pay  me  until  you  are  ready;  but  how  would 
you  like  to  go  up-stairs  and  share  my  room 
and  double  bed?"  Lincoln  returned  in  a 
[    4    1 


THE    BOOK    OF 


jhtl<ruxr&v 


WATCHE  S 


few  minutes:  "Speed,  I  have  moved  in." 
The  two  lived  in  that  room  until  1841. 

His  first  law  office  was  in  the  block 
north.  His  partner  was  John  T.  Stuart,  the 
first  president  of  the  Illinois  Watch  Com- 
pany. Stuart  went  to  Congress.  Lincoln 
regularly  divided  the  proceeds  of  the  part- 
nership, wrapping  Stuart's  in  a  paper, 
marked  "Stuart's  half."  It  occupied  a 
place  of  security  on  a  shelf,  awaiting 
Stuart's  return  or  instructions. 

Lincoln  married  Mary  Todd  in  a  pre- 
tentious brick  residence  that  stood  on  the 
site  where  the  State  has  erected  a  Centen- 


LINCOLN   8  HOME,  SPRINGFIELD 


[    5    ] 


THE    BOOK    OF     /4^^yxc<r^  WATCHES 

nial  memorial  to  its  admission  to  the 
Union.  The  newly  weds  went  to  the  Globe 
Tavern  where  they  lived  almost  two  years 
and  recommended  it  to  friends  as  a  good 
tavern  "where  board  and  room  may  be 
had  at  four  dollars  a  week."  Their  first 
child  was  born  in  this  old  hostelry. 

In  1844,  Lincoln  purchased,  for  fifteen 
hundred  dollars,  the  only  property  he 
ever  owned — a  modest  story  and  a  half 
cottage. 

While  he  was  on  one  of  his  journeys 
over  the  circuit,  Mrs.  Lincoln  renewed  the 
roof  and  made  it  a  two-story  house. 

Returning,  he  pretended  not  to  know 
his  own  house;  calling  to  a  neighbor:  "I 
am  Abe  Lincoln;  I'm  looking  for  my  house; 
I  thought  it  was  over  there;  I  think  I  must 
be  lost." 

Lincoln  enjoyed  his  home,  played  there 
with  his  and  his  neighbor's  children  and, 
at  evening  stretched  himself  full  length 
on  the  parlor  floor  with  his  head  resting 
upon  an  upturned  chair  to  read.  He  was 
\    6    1 


THE    BOOK    OF 


Jl^MrtC<r^ 


W ATCHE  S 


^*&*$&*}&&fJ^ 


LINCOLN    S  TOMB,   SPRINGFIELD 

aroused  one  evening  from  this  comfort  to 
answer  a  call  at  the  door  and  told  his  visi- 
tors: "I'll  trot  the  women  folks  out." 

Lincoln's  second  law  partner  was 
Stephen  T.  Logan.  His  third  was  William 
H.  Herndon  whom  he  joined  in  1843.  Ad- 
dressing him  affectionately  as  "Billy,"  he 
said,  as  they  started  their  career:  "Billy,  if 
you  trust  me  as  much  as  I  trust  you,  we 
will  have  no  difficulty." 

Their  office  was  within  a  few  feet  of  the 
\     7     1 


THE    BOOK    OF  J^y^^   WATCHES 

room  which  Lincoln  and  Speed  had  occu- 
pied. On  the  day  before  his  departure  for 
Washington,  Lincoln  visited  the  old  office. 
He  lay  upon  a  sofa.  With  his  eyes  to  the 
ceiling,  he  remarked:  "I  have  come  to 
have  a  long  talk  with  you.  We  have  never 
had  a  cross  word  during  all  these  years." 
As  he  went  away,  the  creaking  sign  drew 
his  attention:  "let  it  hang  there  undis- 
turbed; give  our  clients  to  understand  that 
election  to  the  presidency  makes  no 
changes  in  the  firm  of  Lincoln  &  Hern- 
don." 

It  was  raining  and  sleeting  the  morning 
of  February  11,  1861,  when  Lincoln,  his 
family  and  a  few  intimates  boarded  a  spe- 
cial train  for  Washington  at  the  Wabash 
station.  To  a  small  group  of  sad  faces, 
Lincoln  spoke  from  the  rear  platform  his 
immortal  farewell  to  Springfield: 

ff My  friends,  no  one  not  in  my  situation 

can  appreciate  my  feeling  of  sadness  at 

this  parting.  To  this  place,  and  the  kindness 

of  these  people,  I  owe  everything.   Here  1 

F    8    1 


THE    BOOK     OF    %/f£"tCo&,  WATCHES 


LINCOLN   MEMORIAL,  WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 

have  lived  a  quarter  of  a  century,  and 
have  passed  from  a  young  to  an  old  man. 
Here  my  children  have  been  born,  and 
one  is  buried.  I  now  leave,  not  knowing 
when  or  whether  ever  I  may  return,  with 
a  task  before  me  greater  than  that  which 
rested  upon  Washington.  Without  the 
assistance  of  that  Divine  Being  who  ever 
attended  him  I  can  not  succeed.  With  that 
assistance  I  cannot  fail.  Trusting  in  Him, 
who  can  go  with  me  and  remain  with  you, 
and  be  everywhere  for  good,  let  us  con- 
fidently hope  that  all  will  yet  be  well.  To 
f     9     1 


THE    BOOK    OF  ^Ut^  WATCHES 

His  care  commending  you,  as  I  hope  in 
your  prayers  you  will  commend  me,  I  bid 
you  an  affectionate  farewell." 

On  the  morning  of  the  day  of  his  as- 
sassination, he  rode  with  Mrs.  Lincoln 
through  Washington,  reflecting  on  the 
end  of  the  war  and  fixing  the  time  when 
they  could  "settle  down  once  more  in  our 
old  Springfield  home  and  end  our  lives 
among  the  friends  of  our  early  da^s.  I 
wish  it  might  he  soon." 

These  touches  are  added  to  the  picture 
to  throw  into  high  light  his  affection  for 
the  little  house,  and  the  city  in  which  he 
lived  the  momentous  formative  twenty- 
five  years  of  his  life. 

It  has  been  said  that  Lincoln  acquired 
much  of  his  broad  knowledge  of  men  and 
of  political  affairs  by  his  association  with 
The  Sangamo  Journal  in  whose  office  he 
read  the  exchanges,  kept  in  touch  with 
politics  the  country  over  and  wrote  edi- 
torials for  his  friend,  Simeon  Francis,  from 
whom  he  acquired  polish  and  a  social 
f     10     1 


THE    BOOK    OF  j4£^aAo  WATCHES 

standing.  Here  lie  read>the  telegram  an- 
nouncing his  nomination  and  observed 
that  he  would  better  "tell  the  little  woman 
down  the  street  the  news." 

Only  a  few  feet  from  the  spot  where  he 
stopped  on  the  day  he  reached  Springfield 
to  inake  it  his  home  stood  the  new  capitol 
of  Illinois.  In  its  Hall  of  Representatives, 
Lincoln  was  nominated  by  the  Republic- 
ans, on  June  16,  1858,  to  the  United 
States  senate  against  Stephen  A.  Douglas. 
Accepting  the  honor  he  made  the  cele- 
brated "House  Divided  Against  It6elf" 
speech.  The  historian,  A.  C.  McLaughlin 
says  of  it:  "with  the  exception  of  the 
Gettysburg  address,  it  was  Lincoln's  most 
famous  speech." 

From  his  nomination  to  the  presidency 
to  his  departure  for  the  inauguration,  Lin- 
coln's headquarters  were  the  Governor's 
room  in  this  building.  Adjoining  his 
office  was  that  of  Newton  Bateman,  Super- 
intendent of  Public  Instruction,  and 
one  of  the  pioneers  in  developing  the 
f     11     1 


THEBOOKOF  J^^^,   WATCHES 

State's  common  school  system.  In  this 
room  Lincoln  met  citizens  and  delega- 
tions, artists,  newspaper  men  and  political 
leaders  who  came  in  great  crowds  from  all 
parts  of  the  nation. 

To  Bateman  he  deplored  the  attitude  of 
Springfield's  ministers  who  were  known 
to  stand  twenty  against  and  only  three 
for  his  election.  "God  cared,  humanity 
cares,"  said  he  sadly  to  Bateman,  "and  if 
they  (the  ministers)  don't,  they  surely 
have  not  read  their  Bibles  aright." 

After  his  election  he  slipped  away  for 
an  hour  or  two,  as  he  could  take  them,  to 
a  dark,  dingy,  unromantic,  bare  room  on 
the  third  floor  of  a  store  building,  across 
from  the  capitol  and  there  penned  his 
wonderful  first  inaugural  address,  one  of 
the  nation's  greatest  political  and  legal 
documents  that  "will  ever  bear  compari- 
son with  the  efforts  of  Washington,  Jeffer- 
son and  Adams." 

In  this  capitol  Governor  Yates,  over  the 
protests  of  powerful  advisors,  chose  U.  S. 
[     12     ] 


THE    BOOK    OF 


yrd2nc<r&, 


WATCHES 


Grant  to  lead  an  Illinois  regiment;  Lin- 
coln selected  John  Hay  to  be  one  of  his 
secretaries  and  started  on  his  public  ca- 
reer one  of  America's  most  distinguished 
diplomats  and  statesmen.  In  the  hall 
where  his  "House  Divided  Against  Itself " 
speech  was  delivered,  Lincoln's  body  lay 
in  state,  while  seventy-five  thousand  peo- 
ple passed  before  his  open  coffin.  His  fu- 
neral train  had  arrived  at  the  Chicago 
&  Alton  station,  an  hour  late,  at  nine 


O'CONNOB'S  STATUE  OP  LINCOLN,  SPRINGFIELD 


[    13    ] 


THE    BOOK    OF      /f£nccr&/  WATCHES 

o'clock  on  the  morning  of  May  3,  1865. 
After  the  funeral  ceremonies  his  body 
was  placed  in  a  vault  in  Oak  Ridge  ceme- 
tery. It  has  been  transferred  a  number  of 
times  but  now  rests  in  the  north  crypt 
of  the  impressive  monument  a  bereaved 
nation  erected  on  a  knoll  in  that  ceme- 
tery. Here  come  the  people  of  all  lands, 
nearly  one  hundred  thousand  of  them  in 
1923  and  among  them  every  distinguished 
foreigner  visiting  in  this  country  that  year, 
—  Clemenceau,  Lloyd  George,  Zangwill, 
Haller,  Paderewski,  Nansen. 

Of  this  city  and  this  tomb  Stephen  S. 
Wise,  the  eminent  Jewish  scholar  said: 
"surely  there  will  be  no  dissenting  from 
my  thought  that  the  two  chiefest  and 
holiest  shrines  of  America  are  to  be  found 
on  the  bank  of  the  Potomac  and  within 
this  city  of  Illinois.  .  .  .  His  tomb  at 
Springfield  is  no  less  sacred  and  precious 
than  the  grave  at  Mt.  Vernon,  each  a  re- 
vered shrine  of  the  American  People, 
each  a  hallowed  altar  of  humanity." 
[     14     1 


THEBOOKOF   J^^^  WATCHES 


THE 


Jrdlrvccr^yu 


1  HIS  new  watch  is  a  thin  model  12  size. 
It  is  extremely  high-grade  and  is  sold  in 
green  or  white,  solid  gold  and  filled  cases 
of  attractive  design. 

The  experience  of  more  than  half  a 
century  in  making  fine  watches  has  en- 
abled us  to  produce  this  new  A.  Lincoln — 


ACORN  MODEL.  NO.  L5.  14k  FILLED  GREEN  OR  WHITE 
GOLD,  INSIDE  CAP  CASE.  TWO  COLOR,  GREEN  AND  SILVERED 
ETCHED   OR   EMBOSSED   RAISED    FIGURED    DIAL $75.00 


t     15     ] 


THE    BOOK    OF   J^^yx^y^   WATCHES 


a  timekeeper  worthy  of  the  name,  because 
of  its  satisfactory  qualities  and  thorough 
dependability. 

The  dials  illustrated  in  this  booklet  are 
but  a  few  of  those  we  are  prepared  to  fur- 
nish. The  etched  dials  shown  are  distinc- 
tively new  and  particularly  attractive. 

The  A.  Lincoln  contains  19  selected 
Ruby  and  Sapphire  jewels  and  is  adjusted 
to  five  positions,  temperature  and  isoch- 


ronism. 


BARRISTER  MODEL.  NO.  L6.  14k  SOLID  GOLD  CASE.  FULL 
CHASED  BEZELS  AND  CENTER.  SPECIAL  ETCHED,  LINED  OR 
BUTLER  BACK.  INSIDE  CAP.  STERLING  SILVER  HAND  EN- 
GRAVED DIAL  WITH  INLAID   ENAMEL   FIGURES $110.00 


16 


THE    BOOK    OP 


y^&ncX 


WATCHES 


It  is  a  watch  that  any  man  should  be 
proud  to  own  and  can  be  had  at  prices 
well  within  the  reach  of  those  desiring  a 
high-grade,  up-to-date,  attractive  and  de- 
pendable timekeeper. 

The  A.  Lincoln  is  an  ideal  watch  for 
presentation  purposes,  being  regularly 
furnished  in  handsome  leather-lined  dis- 
play boxes. 

We  feel  sure  that  the  list  of  special 
features  enumerated  below  will  be  of  in- 


PTONEER  MODEL.  NO.  L4.  14k  FILLED.  FULL  CHASED 
BEZELS  AND  CENTER.  SPECIAL  ETCHED  LINED  OR  BUTLER 
BACK.    QUEEN  CASE.   EMBOSSED  RAISED  FIGURE  DIAL.    $75.00 


17 


THEBOOKOF    ^jy^^   WATCHES 

terest  to  those  prospective  customers  who 
desire  to  compare  watch  values. 

19  Selected  Ruby  and  Sapphire  Jewels. 

Adjusted  to  Five  Positions,  Tempera- 
ture and  Isochronism. 

Double  Roller  Escapement. 

Steel  Escape  Wheel. 

Polished  Beveled-arm  Gold  Center 
Wheel. 

Breguet  Hairspring. 


PIONEER  MODEL.  NO.  Ll.  14K  SOLID,  GREEN  OR  WHITE 
GOLD.  FULL  CHASED  CENTER  AND  BEZELS.  ATTRACTIVE 
ETCHED  LINED  OR  BUTLER  BACK.  QUEEN  CASE.  TWO 
COLOR,  GREEN  AND  WHITE  GILDED  NEW  PROCESS  ETCHED 
DIAL  AND  ANCIENT  ROMAN  FIGURES  IN   RELIEF.     ...$100.00 


18 


THE    BOOK    OF   ^XWATCHES 

Patent  Regulator. 

Concaved  and  Polished  Winding 
Wheels. 

Recoil  Safety  Click. 

Hardened  Spring-tempered  Compen- 
sating Balance. 

Illinois  Motor  Barrel. 


MOVEMENT  VIEW 
SIDE   VIEWS  —  BA8SINE  AND   CHASED   CASE3 


[     W     ] 


IN 
THE  PLANT 

OF  THE  ILLINOIS  WATCH  CO. 
MORE  THAN  800  'WATCHES 
ARE  PRODUCED  DAILY  BY 
1300  SKILLED  SPECIALISTS. 
THE  OUTPUT  IS  CONFINED 
EXCLUSIVELY  TO  HIGH- 
GRADE  MOVEMENTS  IN  WHICH 
THE  FINEST  WORKMANSHIP 
AND  MATERIALS  ARE  USED. 
THE  FACTORY  IS  SITUATED  IN 
THE  CENTER  OF  A  14-ACRE 
PARK — CONDITIONS  LENDING 
THEMSELVES  TO  THE  MAKING 
OF  THESE  FAMOUS  WATCHES. 

SPRINGFIELD 
ILLINOIS 


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THE  BOOK  OF  A.  LINCOLN  WATCHES  SPRINGFI 


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